Samurai Jack
"Jack" (also known as Samurai Jack or simply The Samurai) is the alias taken by a Japanese warrior (with an unknown birth name) who acts as the titular protagonist of the cartoon Samurai Jack. Since youth, Jack trained in many different areas under numerous teachers in a variety of skills to defeat the demon Aku. However, Aku's dark magic sent Jack eons into the future, where he ruled all of Earth unopposed. Jack made it his mission to find a way back to his time and prevent Aku's dystopia. Throughout his travels, Jack became an infamous freedom fighter, protecting and aiding numerous civilizations and innocents terrorized by Aku's forces and other malevolent foes. Due to his many revolts against Aku's rule and being the only person capable of killing him (because of his divinely crafted sword) he was the most wanted man in the world. After more than 50 years, Jack finally returned to the past and defeated Aku, creating a brighter future. Appearance Early in the series, Jack's face was depicted as long and rectangular; however, later in the show it became more like a square with a distinct eastern look. As an adult, he is fairly tall and lean but fit in build, and has long jet black hair that he keeps tied in a Japanese chonmage. Jack's clothing consists of a simple white and gray gi in the style of a kimono, a white obi around his waist, and a pair of wooden geta. His geta were once destroyed in Episode XXVI, but were eventually replaced by a jet repairman named Tengu who crafted similar geta for himself and his family. Throughout the show, whenever Jack's kimono is severely damaged in battle, he simply tears off the top half to continue fighting unhindered. Because he starts each new episode with his kimono fully intact, it can be assumed that Jack repairs his clothing in-between episodes. In the image shown by the time portal guarded by the Guardian depicting an older version of himself, Jack is shown to have waist-long beard and hair. He is also shown to be wearing a golden crown and a red cape with scars all over his body. As of Season 5, it is revealed that Jack cannot age as a side-effect of Aku's time portal. He has grown a large beard and wears full Samurai armor with a mask resembling a Japanese Oni and a holster across his torso. In Episode XCII his mask was destroyed by a horde of Beetle Drones, and he discarded his helmet and shoulder pads while fighting Scaramouch. He appeared with his full armor again in Episode XCIII only for it to be completely destroyed by the Daughters of Aku, shortening his beard and leaving him wearing only tattered rags. In Episode XCV, Jack created some makeshift armor from the discarded exoskeleton of a centipede-like creature while trapped inside a larger monster, though it too was lost following his escape. In Episode XCVI, Jack steals a gray wide brimmed hat, lavender tailcoat, dark blue slacks and black cowboy boots from local vendors while visiting a city, giving him the appearance of an Old Western outlaw. Unfortunately, this disguise was ripped to pieces while Jack was rescuing mind-controlled children from one of Aku's factories. By Episode XCVIII, Odin, Ra, and Vishnu return Jack to his classic look, restoring his kimono, removing his beard and styling his hair back up in a topknot. In Episode CI, he wore a set of traditional Japanese wedding garment which consisted of a black crested haori jacket and a loose hakama. Personality Jack strongly exhibits the characteristics of a stoic hero. He is unfailingly kind and generous, and will always attempt to help those in need, as well as dispatching sage like wisdom to those he believes are in need of guidance. He often ends up sacrificing a chance to return to his own time in order to help someone else. He has had considerable development during his time in the future. Initially, though polite and refined, he was very quick to anger and even more quick to being frustrated or irritated. His quest to return to his own time, having been thwarted again and again, even convinced him for a short time that returning to the past was impossible. However, over time, he has become much more patient and calm. He is also clever and rational, able to pose a plan or a strategy necessary to defeat the enemy, and also knowing his limits (such as when he is surrounded by too many enemies to defeat them by pure force). He is also extremely good at thinking on his feet, often improvising his way out of lethal, or impossibly bizarre, situations. He is also a very solitary man, tending not to socialize due to his focus on his quest. In Season 5, his lack of social skills is highlighted in his interactions with Ashi, first when he tries to convince her of Aku's evil and later when he tries to bond with her. He once jokes in XCV about the raining needles stuck in their bodies, claiming people pay for it and that it is called acupuncture, then later shyly compliments her new dress and hair in XCVII. Though not expanded upon, his lack of socializing makes him more shy and awkward around women, exemplified through his interactions with Ikra, Josephine, and in particular Ashi, whom he becomes infatuated with. While he is fine working with and befriending several people (regardless of gender) throughout his journey both during his training in the past and current quest in the future, he becomes shy during more intimate moments. However a running gag in the show (During Seasons 1-4) is his inability or reluctance to understand the technology of the future, such as in one episode where Jack had attempted to escape Aku's fortress after rescuing two fairy like creatures by driving a hovercar, but he fails to operate it competently, claiming he prefers to walk. He is also quite good at keeping his wits about him when confronted with the outlandishly strange circumstances that he often finds himself in, simply rolling with the proverbial punches rather than becoming upset or baffled. After 50 years in the future, between losing his father's sword (the only means of killing Aku) and all known means of return to the past being destroyed, Jack has become disillusioned with the idea of ever completing his quest. He is emotionally vulnerable, showing signs of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder as he is often haunted by hallucinations of his family and the people of the past, constantly asking him why he didn't return to save them. Also, in Episode XCIII, his mind manifests a hallucination of Mad Jack, demanding that Jack give up and end his constant suffering, means that Jack is contemplating seppuku (traditional Japanese suicide) in this episode. Despite his weariness and seeming lack of hope, Jack refuses to surrender, continuing his quest to save people from Aku's tyranny wherever possible. At the same time, he also becomes open-minded with technology in which he begins to utilize high-tech weaponry, explosive, and riding a motorbike. Despite his decades of training and fighting as the ultimate warrior, and his seemingly endless journey hardening his overall outlook, Jack's general nature is still rather inexperienced, having never directly taken the life of a human-being or sentient alien. He is able to distance himself from the knowledge of all the robots and androids he has destroyed by noting that they are just "nuts and bolts". However, upon actually killing such a being, one Daughter of Aku, he was left horrified at the sight. However he later comes to term with his first kill after a memory of remembering his father's word of wisdom and is able to handle killing the remaining Daughters of Aku. Despite this, he still dislikes the notion of having to kill unless absolutely necessary, and will never harm an innocent. Jack at the same time has become more the easily angered due to Mad Jack's influence after Aku destroyed the last time portal. This cause him to become easily more annoyed, aggressive and angered. He eventually let go of his anger in order to be worthy of using his sword again. Powers and Abilities *Agelessness/Enhanced Longevity: Due to an unintended side effect of Aku's time-traveling spell, Jack since his arrival through time, he no longer physically ages, potentially able to live indefinitely. Also, as a result, he has retained his youthful appearance along with his prime health and vitality, despite being in his seventies or eighties, chronologically. However, he is not immortal thus he is still susceptible to death via starvation, cold, physical injury; still vulnerable to pain and injuries, and could be killed the same way as any normal human. This longevity does not apply to his metabolism thus he still requires food, water and rest. It is unknown whether or not Jack retained this ability after changing time by finally destroying Aku in the past. *Animal Empathy: Jack's pure nature has commonly shown a strong connection to animals of various size and shapes. Often, they grow attached to and in essence become his allies. To which, he is able to keep them tame enough as a means of transportation. His connection with animals even at times allows him to in a manner of speaking communicate with them, able to understand their intentions. *Cunning: Jack has demonstrated a high level of understanding and intelligence, proving to be an expert at planning and creating strategies for confrontations, using his surroundings to his advantage, and seeing through Aku's deception on quite a few occasions. This cunning allows him to easily plan for his opponents and make strategies, both ahead of time and in the heat of the moment. *Hunting/Survival Skills: Living among Aku's regime greatly limits the number of places Jack can visit for a meal even when he has money; thus he tends to live in the wild where he must obtain his own food, water. As such, he is a proficient hunter, trapper, forager, and cook. He also has basic medical skills, and he tends to patch himself back up after his battles. On one occasion, Jack created a rope trap out of vines for catching a wild boar and would have succeeded if not for the unexpected arrival of the Woolies. Despite his mostly living in the wild, he maintained an impeccable level of personal hygiene. *Master Archer: Jack has shown to have excellent skills in archery since he was trained by Robin Hood. His archer skill was put to the test in Episode 3 when Jack used this skill to to set off traps against the beetle drones and later used his last arrows on the beetle drones which they hit dead on. *Master Marksman: Jack has high levels of precision and accuracy with firearms even at a great distance, rarely missing his target. Jack is shown proficiency in modern weaponry; shown using a handgun after spending 50 years in the future. While he never trained in the use of firearms during his training regimen, he presumably mastered it's use in the absence of his sword. He is also skilled in using heavy firearms such as a machine gun with a rocket launcher. *Master Martial Artist: Jack has shown impressive mastery in many styles of martial arts; some of which include the Shaolin Praying Mantis, Tiger and Eagle styles, Greek wrestling and African stick fighting. In his youth, Jack also learned how to use unfamiliar weapons by observing others, and adapting their style into his own skills to use them more effectively as necessary. After 50 years, he is shown to be skilled enough to kill three of the highly skilled Daughters of Aku with only his bare hands by turning their inner strength and weapon against them. *Master Melee Fighter: Jack is well versed in a number of weapons that range from spears and staffs to nunchukus and shurikens, as shown in his fights at the Dome of Doom. After 50 years, he begins to adapt to modern technology, where he relies on firearms, a motorcycle, and a retractable pole arm. *Master Swordsman: Jack's signature and arguably greatest skill is his performance with a sword. Jack's style relies primarily on swiftness and precision in his strikes, balancing with strong defensive stances that parry his opponent's strikes until finding an opening for a decisive blow. Very few opponents have been demonstrated to be a match for his swordsmanship, among them The Scotsman, The Ninja, and the sword-wielding Ultra-Robot, and even fewer can outright defeat him, such as The Guardian. His trademark technique is Horse Cut, which he jumps into the air and slashes the opponent with tremendous force during his fall to break their defense or destroy their armor. After 50 years, he is shown to be able to fight a group of assassins using only a combat knife. *Vehicle Intuition: Originally Jack possessed no familiarization with transportation vehicles; later he is shown to know how to ride a motorcycle after 50 years in the future. *Multilingual: Due to his travels around the world in his native era, Jack was taught by many different cultures, including African, Greek, Russian, Mongolian, English, and more. Presumably he learned the local languages and dialects of his teachers during this time period, as international tongues were rare in his period of history. *Ninjutsu: Jack has had training in ninjitsu, having been trained to blend in with his surroundings. His preferred style is to blend in with the light. He does this by simply reversing his kimono so that he is dressed in white, and tying white bandages around his face, hands, and feet, after which he employs his training. 50 years later he is even able to blend even with little clothing to disguise himself with. *Peak Human Conditioning: From spending the majority of his life preparing to face Aku and constantly facing adversity in his quest to return home, Jack has honed his body to the absolute limit of human potential. Given the fact he no longer ages and maintains a healthy lifestyle, he probably will remain that way for the forseeable future. **Peak Human Agility: Jack is extremely agile and he often use this speed to his advantage against his opponents and Jack can easily do back-flips to avoid danger and land on his feet with ease. **Peak Human Endurance: Jack has shown many times to be highly resistant to harm. He withstood powerful blows from inhumanly strong opponents relatively unfazed and being slammed through rocks only to quickly brush it off. Even with injures he does sustain, he has a high threshold for pain, able to continue fighting with no hindrance to his performance. He has even survived falls from great heights that would kill a normal person. Jack also has an unfathomable reserve of stamina. In addition to rarely tiring, even after such, he is shown able to fight off hundreds of opponents for days. And still able to move and survive despite losing a lot of blood as seen in Episode XCIV. **Peak Human Senses: Jack's years of training have honed his senses to surreal levels. With them, he is highly alert to any approaching threat and likewise is able to quickly react to even the fastest of opponents. With his sense of hearing alone, he was able to defeat the Blind Archers, taking in the whole environment to consistently steps ahead of the three archers. **Peak Human Speed: Jack is shown to be extremely swift. With his natural reflexes and sheer footwork, he is able to able to avoid gunfire, carve through entire armies within seconds and even defeat a team composed entirely of highly skilled bounty hunters from all directions in the time it takes for a drop of water to hit the ground. He has also demonstrated the ability to use his sword to deflect bullets from a gatling gun with little effort. **Peak Human Strength: Jack has deceptive raw strength for his lean frame, able to cleanly cut through most machines with little effort and can easily throw opponents much larger than himself. Also, following his training with the blue monkeys, his strength increased immensely, able to jump about while weighed down all over by large rocks and boulders. In building up his muscles for this improved physical prowess, he also gained the ability to jump about hundreds of feet into the air, even from a stationary position. However in comparison to characters such as The Scotsman, he is shown to have difficulties lifting heavy loads. *Willpower: Jack seems to possess a nearly indomitable force of will, able to push himself through virtually any hardship in order to vanquish Aku. This ability is not absolute however, and he is capable of becoming disheartened and, at one point, he nearly gave up his quest (though on that occasion he got over himself in rather short order after being reminded of what it was that he fought for). Weapons and Equipment Main Weapon Jack's Katana: A mystical katana forged by Ra, Odin, and Vishnu to vanquish Aku. This was Jack's only primary weapon until it was lost in battle sometime prior to Season 5, which forced him to resort to using other high-tech weaponry instead. In Episode XCVIII, Jack reunited with his magic sword by overcoming a gauntlet of dangerous physical and spiritual tests. In Episode CI, After Jack successfully killed Aku, the katana is probably in the restored castle as the first episode. Extended Weaponry While his katana was his principal weapon; the duration he spent without it forced Jack to adopt an arsenal of weapons in order to survive and fend off the contemporary enemies of the future. *Electric Trident: Jack is shown using a retractable trident with a dragon-shaped head sharp enough to penetrate and pull out the electrical components of Beetle Drones, while the reverse end emits an electric charge strong enough to cut through anything. It is revealed that the dragon-shaped head can spin like a drill to penetrate the biggest Beetle Drone easily. Lost during Jack's battle with the Daughters of Aku. *Tuning Knife: Jack gets this knife after defeating Scaramouch. The knife can transform into a tuning fork shape and emits an ultra high frequency oscillation that shatters objects on contact. Stolen by one of the Daughters of Aku, but later recovered. Jack used the knife to destroy the temple's hallway during his escape, preventing the Daughters from following him. Lost in the river. *Laser Pistol: Jack's personal sidearm. The rounds are powerful enough to penetrate multiple targets at once and destroy a golem's head with one shot. Destroyed during Jack's first encounter with the Daughters of Aku. *Mini-gun: This weapon is more advanced than the real-life equivalent, since it can be wielded like an assault rifle and has a built-in rocket launcher at the center. Jack keeps this stowed in his motorcycle. Smashed with a kanabo by one of the Daughters of Aku. *Kunai: Jack threw a kunai at Scaramouch's smartphone to prevent him from talking further with Aku. Presumably lost during Jack's first encounter with the Daughters of Aku. *Samurai Armor: This armor provides additional protection for Jack with high durability and built-in retractable shields that can be thrown as projectiles. The armor originally had a demon mask until it was destroyed during a confrontation with the Beetle Drones. The rest of the armor was destroyed during Jack's first encounter with the Daughters of Aku. *Motorcycle: Jack's own ride which is also a rideable weapon. The wheels can sprout spikes, which are used for destroying multiple enemies. It was quickly destroyed with a tripwire by the Daughters of Aku. *Explosives: Jack carries a whole belt of explosive devices, but mainly uses them to escape from desperate situations. All were used during his escape from the Daughters of Aku. *Combat knives: Jack wields two long Bowie knives with brass-knuckle hilts when fighting against Scaramouch. Both of these are shattered during the battle by the tuning knife, though Jack is able to throw the second at Scaramouch before it explodes, damaging him with its fragments in the process. *Other Weapons: Jack occasionally and briefly uses other weapons he finds but does not keep (and even did this while he still had his sword). In Season 5, he uses Scaramouch's own scimitar to destroy him but discards it due to its weight. He later uses an ancient sword and battle-axe while fighting the Daughters of Aku in a temple, but both are destroyed. In his rematch against the remaining Daughters, Jack killed two of them with spears he had created and fought the rest with their own weapons. While trapped inside a large monster, Jack's resourcefulness and improvisation came into play, using a creature's severed limb as a makeshift sword to fight them, then later grabbing part of the monster's innards as a makeshift mace to rescue Ashi. He also uses the ritual Seppuku dagger meant for him against The Omen to save Ashi's life. Role in the Series (TBA) Category:Characters Category:Heroes Category:Punch Time Exploders